The bandwidth speed battles between Cablevision and Verizon are getting bloodier. Cablevision has been pushing the envelope and is forcing Verizon to do things a Bell typically doesn’t like to do – offer real broadband level speeds.
Verizon has announced that it will sell a 50 megabits down and 10 5 megabits up connection for $90 a month. (Thanks Tom, for pointing out that the business offer was 50/10.) The service is available where Verizon FiOS network is live in the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
This is an interesting move -does this mean Verizon is now just a pipe provider (and there is nothing wrong with that.) I have argued this is the best recourse for the phone companies is to sell more bandwidth at premium prices – turn the Moore’s law to their advantage.
Now is the time for Cablevision to offer the symetrical speeds they have been “trialing” in Oyster Bay. You mentioned this trial back in July.
http://gigaom.com/2005/06/27/cablevision-to-sell-50-megabitss-service-in-long-island/
I wonder what the real-world speed difference will be between 50/10 and 15/5.
yeah, this could be one of the most interesting developments. i know cablevision is pretty close to finalizing that trial – which could mean more interesting developments in the near future.
A good way to test the difference in speed would be to play an online game like wow. Is the connection really anything different then with a cable / dsl modem. I have a feeling that no matter how fast your initial connection to the central office is you will still suffer from internet lag.
Yeah I was wondering about similar things. Could somebody unearth some fine print that would disclose some limits on the service? Forget playing games. If you have a 10 megabit upstream, heck, start hosting popular media streaming web sites straight from your home, for no more than $90/month. Forget using web hosting companies, you can become one for $90/month, some additional dough for a couple of static IP addresses, and a couple of Mac Minis.
Somewhere in their terms of service, there’s gotta be something that gives you an absolute bandwidth usage monthly quota.
Can their backhaul actually sustain 50/10Mbps from multiple users?
One place the extra bandwidth would make an immediate difference is with online video and file sharing.
A good example is online file storage/backup. With a measly 1.5 Mbps/384kbps connection, you have to be really careful about which files you choose to store. With 50 Mbps/10Mbps, you could backup a fair amount of stuff, especially if you could somehow schedule the backup to happen at night. If higher speeds become the norm, we could see a whole new breed of Internet applications.
Om (Mr. Malik?), is there really nothing wrong with just being a “pipe provider”? So far, it seems like broadband providers have done all they can to avoid the commoditization of their offerings. I guess the PC processor manufacturers have survived, but I don’t know that they’re happy about it. At least Intel doesn’t have to dig up anybody’s yard to keep pace with Moore’s Law. 🙂
You won’t notice the difference in a game like WoW since it wasn’t designed to take advantage of such speeds. Latency (lag) is the biggest buzz-kill for online gaming.
Speed like this will enable HD video downloads once the DRM issues are ironed out. Of course it will also enable Napster-like sharing of video (like in the “bad” old days).
Broadband speeds have always lead applications. People used to ask what you’d really do with a 128k ISDN line. Seems silly now…
I know for sure that I’d pay for FiOS if it was available in Rochester, NY. But… we’re always the last to get any cool new technologies rolled out. It’s a crying shame.
and to think videotron is all excited about upgrading its high-speed service to 20Mbps from 15Mbps…
Om:
Been poring over the press release and it looks like 50/10 is a “business offer” with a best price of $350/month but 50/5 is a “residential” offer at the $90 you quoted.
This is a partial answer to your reader who was aking about TOS limitations.
Think that you’re right on that this is competition for real. Wish we had it here in Vermont.
I have Cablevision Optimum boost (30/2) because our Condo development is not wired for fiber (even though fios is on the streets, we wont get it here unless they rip up the pavement)
but I have to say 30/2 is a HUGE increase over 15/2. I have an Xbox 360, a gaming PC, we have 2 laptops, an 802.11G wifi network, and a duel tuner HD cable box, and I have to say I cannot imagine going back to that 15 a second download with all this equipment.
I can download entire xbox live game demos within minutes, and my websites load as fast as the servers respond.
The only advantage of fios is the fact that the line is So clear, no cable noise or digital artifacts that I sometimes see, but oh well were still the fastest in the country.
You need to clearly understand that you WILL NEVER GET 50/5 Mbit/s with Verizon. Read the terms. You will be paying for UP TO 50/5 fios line. Notice the UP TO part. If the line performs slower than the 56K modem it stil satisfies the terms.
To Apple is for suckers:
Do you honestly believe that all 56k service gets 56 kbps every second? Or that 1.5M service constantly gets 1500 kbps?
All download speeds are labeled with the same “Up to” theoretical limits, but actual speeds may vary due to network issues. Check the fine print. It’s not a slam on Verizon or any other provider, it’s just the way it works.
well thats expensive i have roadrunner for 30 a month and i get 30mbps on a bad day
“All download speeds are labeled with the same “Up to” theoretical limits, but actual speeds may vary due to network issues. Check the fine print. It’s not a slam on Verizon or any other provider, it’s just the way it works.”
Dude, if you don’t know that there is still a huge difference in the actual bandwidth you get from cable vs. dsl than there is no hope for you. And all down speeds aren’t labled as up to, it depends on your service agreement and the type of account. Please get a clue first, remove “stupid” sign from neck second, and remove foot from mouth.
Cablevision is just waiting for Verizon to try and step up, then they shall once again issue the smack down. Come on Verizon, get your stuff together and stop charging people astronomical prices for sub-par service.
verizon is all fiber.. they bring it to your house from the pole.. cablevision doesnt do that. it’s a free installation, and with the bundles they’re currently offering with tv and phone, it’s a steal.. wake up people- cablevision is being forced out since they can’t compete with even the 20/5 service verizon offers. oh yeah, and verizon’s phone stays on when the power goes off.. doesnt happen with cable’s VOIP phones.. oops
GoSansFil.com is also offering the VDSL2 for $60/month Go check out their forum for more info.
To FlamingKing:
“Do you honestly believe that all 56k service gets 56 kbps every second? Or that 1.5M service constantly gets 1500 kbps?”
I’m pretty sure the Apple is for suckers made it very clear that he DIDN’T believe that customers always get the advertised service rate in his first sentence.
To JT’s reply to TheFlamingKing(:
“Dude, if you don’t know that there is still a huge difference in the actual bandwidth you get from cable vs. dsl than there is no hope for you. And all down speeds aren’t labled as up to, it depends on your service agreement and the type of account. Please get a clue first, remove “stupid” sign from neck second, and remove foot from mouth.”
Wow, that’s quite hostile – although I’m pretty sure that you completely have no idea what TheFlamingKing meant – I think they mean that any ISP can’t guarantee a constant speed for downloads or uploads – so they just use the words “up to” so that they aren’t mis-advertising their service. Network speed is affected by many factors – and the farther your machine is from a source or target for data transmission, the more factors their are in determining network performance. A computer sending a query to a Google server will have a number of hops between it and the server. Each “hop” represents a piece of network equipment like a repeater, switch, router, server (proxy or otherwise), etc. All of the network equipment (including the wiring) along the data pathway contributes to the overall performance of the connection. Lets say a one of the switches in between you and your music download somehow got a chunk ‘O dust in the ball bearing well of one of its posterior cooling fans. The cooling fan loses 2% of its speed due to friction, which adds a negligible amount of heat to one of the internal boards. that tiny amount of heat makes the processor work just a wee bit harder, which in turn slightly slows down the processing and transmission of a series of random packets, a number of those which, unfortunately are directed, eventually to your ISP > modem > router > PC. The only thing you’ll see (if your even looking, that is) is that your download speed (depending on what it is) would drop from, lets say 15.27 MB/s to 14.97 MB/s for a period of about 3 seconds, if even that. Then that number would jump to something higher or lower at the next refresh of depending on the current status of the Network-Path (It could be anything from the micro-dust bunny flying out of the bearing well and collecting onto the back of the switch or a stupid bird flying in front of one of the microwave transmitters on a Telecommunication dish and causing a huge – although spread out – lag by forcing the re-transmission of a few TB of data). Furthermore, show me an ISP that doesn’t add “up to” to the beginning to it’s maximum bandwidth advertisement, and I’ll show you a frivolous lawsuit waiting to happen…